Is Your Community For Sale

Andrew Baron might or might not be joking about putting up his Twitter account for sale. If he’s joking, he’s gone to the effort of putting it up on eBay. Baron’s influential, known for creating and running Rocketboom, and a strong supporter of the video community. So, on one side, I could say that he has a valuable community of supporters. But on the other side, this is an interesting question: is your community for sale, and how does that work?

Can/Will Blogs Do It

Jerry Seinfeld had a great quote about baseball fans just “rooting for laundry” because of all the stars changing teams. With the rise of multi-writer blogs, and the looming potential for influential blogs to be bought up into larger networks or even mainstream media, how will that work?

If you’re reading Web Worker Daily or Copyblogger or Engadget or TechCrunch or another three or four dozen influential blogs, you’re reading a multi-author publication. So, if you align yourself as part of that community, and that community is sold to a larger publication, or if it merges, etc, do you just go along and stay a part of that community?

My guess is yes. In situations where there are people deeply tied to a publication, but there’s still a sense of more than one person stirring the pot (Copyblogger *is* Brian Clark, but it’s also his guest writers, and could ultimately be taken over by someone else), I think we can move as a community with it. I think.

But As a Twitter Account?

Not sure if Andrew will get his money. But then again, if he got even $100, that’s kind of interesting, because who’s out there thinking it’s worth $100? Not because ANDREW isn’t worth that, but what’s a Twitter account? It’s like selling your phone number. Doesn’t mean much unless you pick up when I call. Right?

Communities Aren’t Locked In

If this decade’s web technology legacy tells us anything, it’s that community is fluid and mercurial. Friendster to MySpace to Facebook to (we’re still waiting for the next one), and we’re still moving. We can jump in a heartbeat if you bug us.

So how is someone going to buy your community? What’s your community mean in a monetary sense, if you walk away?

What’s your take?

Chris Brogan

CEO of Owner Media Group

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